2010 - Setting up EWCs in multinationals from the Spanish Construction/Services sectors

In the ranking of the 25 biggest European construction companies, one finds 7 Spanish multinational companies, representing a workforce of over 300,000. However, none of these groups has established an EWC. This is mainly due to the fact that over the last decade the biggest of these groups (for example ACS, Ferrovial, FCC) have transformed and diversified from principal construction companies to global leading infrastructure companies which involved a rapid succession of takeovers in order to enter more profitable sectors of industry.

The target group of the action consisted of trade union officials and worker representatives of the three major Spanish groups, namely ACS, Ferrovial and FCC. The key activity was the organisation of a seminar where participants got a knowledge of the usefulness of setting up an EWC (information and consultation), how to proceed and of the contents of the recast Directive 2009/38/EC. The seminar took place on 19-20 October in Madrid (Spain).
The main objective of the action was to exchange information on the structure of the companies concerned and from there on to consider the possibility to set up an EWC, taking into consideration the experiences gathered in other MNCs outside Spain.

For all three groups concerned it was decided at the seminar to take the necessary contacts with the management in order to make it clear that the trade unions and worker representatives involved, at a transnational level, are of the opinion that an EWC should be set up.

The first contacts between management and the Spanish trade unions have led to the conclusion that effectively EWCs should be created, but that in view of the on-going transposition of Directive 2009/38/EC into Spanish law, the legal procedure will be started only after the mentioned transposition.